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Genre Children's television series Similar The Magic Garden, Wonderama, Romper Room | ||
Joya's Fun School was a children's television series produced and broadcast by WPIX-TV in New York City, hosted by Joya Sherrill. After an early iteration with a different title ran in 1970, the series aired weekly from January 3, 1972 until November 27, 1982. The cast also included Luther Henderson, Brumsic Brandon Jr. and a bookworm puppet named Seymour. The series featured stories, songs, and activities.
Contents
Synopsis
Host Joya Sherrill would engage viewers in games, craft-making, hobby segments, and storytelling. There were comedy skits with the puppet Seymour the Bookworm, created and manipulated by cartoonist Brumsic Brandon, Jr., a.k.a. Mr. B.B., and songs with musical accompaniment by the show's musical director, Luther Henderson a.k.a. the Professor. The series also included informational segments and interviews with guest personalities.
Development
In 1969, Joya Sherrill, a former vocalist with Duke Ellington's Jazz Band, suggested to her manager that she was interested in pursuing her own television program. WPIX-TV in New York City at that time was seeking a woman to host a children's television show.
On-air
An initial iteration of the program, Time For Joya, premiered as a Sunday-morning program on March 29, 1970, and ran through October 3, 1971. One guest on a 1970 episode was bandleader Duke Ellington, who in one of his final TV appearance played music and told stories and jokes.
In 1973, the half-hour educational series Joya's Fun School ran Fridays at noon from January 3 to March 30, 1973, by which time it aired at 3 p.m. After a brief hiatus, it returned on Friday, April 20, though it is unclear if the episodes beginning here were new or rerun. The show taped 26 episodes per years for an unspecified duration.
It ran through at least Friday, May 22, 1981, in its original noon timeslot, and through Friday, October 1, 1982, at 2 p.m. Joya's Fun School then ran for a short time on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m., from October 9 to November 27, 1982.
After accompanying her husband to Iran in 1976, where he supervised construction of a residential complex, Sherrill produced and hosted a children's television show on one of the national networks, which broadcast in English. She recalled in 1979, after having returned to the U.S., that in Iran
Except for news, they got all their programs from the United States and England. So my live show was a big production. I told stories and made projects with the kids. Most of my fans were Iranian. I did English lessons for the Americans and Farsi lessons for the Iranians.
Availability
Some footage is available on YouTube.